SODIUM:5 Assault (7 page)

Rollins and Withers then moved quickly into the next hallway sending the unlucky Waffen therein flying in every direction as they fired pulse after pulse from their gravity guns. It was like watching a 3-D action movie on the holo-screen with the added component of fear, fear of knowing that the characters involved in the action were real and their lives could be brought to an immediate end.

The team was soon joined by the remainder of the squad as they drifted and deployed from hallway to hallway looking for the power and control assets of the massive weapon. The battle raged for an hour before we had our first breakthrough. Rollins entered a room with two Waffen at control panels. They were immediately dispatched. After a brief inspection it was determined that the room housed the monitoring gear for one of the beam steering plates. Seconds later the room was filling with smoke from the smashed equipment.

The result of damaging the control room shifted the gravity beam ever so slightly as it was one of over 100,000 such steering plates. The ripple would be enough to pull the beam off of Toleda, but that part of the beam would not arrive for another month. Cheers went up at command anyway, but they soon came to a halt when Waffen technicians elsewhere in the structure tuned the remaining plates to compensate. The beams position was once again directed at Toleda.

One of the Marine teams then took a Waffen technician captive and attempted to interrogate him. They were soon told it was of no use as Waffen did not speak Kurtz and Kurtz did not speak Waffen. The only communication allowed between the two species was done with Frekkin reading and writing, and only a very few were taught that skill. It was one more way the Frekkin had of keeping tight control over the outer worlds. Any violations were again met with a swift death for those involved and heavy punishment for everyone else around them, making for an effective deterrent.

The Marine teams continued to move and destroy control rooms as they went, but with little affect. The Waffen compensated as quickly as control was lost. We needed to look for another method of shutting the weapon down. Orders were quickly given to abandon the control room destruction and to instead keep on the move as quickly as possible in search of the structures source of power.

We soon discovered two rooms that contained power junctions that energized five steering plates at a time. With the two rooms quickly destroyed we again moved on looking for a new tactic. Power had been instantly re-routed from elsewhere. In an effort to try something new, two of the Marines drifted through the inner wall to a position just behind the steering plates.

It was thought that if the structures holding the plates could be destroyed entire rows of plates could be taken offline at once. The tactic proved a colossal failure as the two Marines were soon caught in the gravity pull and sucked out and into the beam heading into the black hole. I let out a sigh of defeat and let my forehead drop into the palm of my open hand. Two more brave lives were lost to our enemy.

The ten remaining squad members continued their assault, drifting from hallway to hallway and floor to floor, always blasting Waffen workers and guards when encountered. But progress was inching along slowly and it soon became apparent that it would take months for the teams to make their way through the massive structure, months that we did not have.

I pressed my Battle Planners for a solution, but none was forthcoming. The ten Marines continued their search and destroy while we twiddled our thumbs. A senior planner soon popped up on my holo-screen. He asked permission to send a nuke down the gravity beam with a detonator set to go off precisely when it entered the lensing structure. It was a long-shot, but he thought it might just have enough oomph to do damage.

There was one big problem with the plan. We had ten Marines on-board the structure. Detonating a nuclear device might be the end for them. I got Rollins on the comm and asked his opinion directly. He said send it in. If there was anything we could do to turn the monstrosity off he was all for it. It was in the line of duty and if he and his team had to be sacrificed to shut it down then so be it. It was the same response I would have given had I been there myself.

The nuclear Driller was prepared, programmed and then launched into the gravity beam with the instruction to attempt to get as close to the edge of the beam as possible before detonation. With no attempt to mask its approach the Driller was able to use its BHD on full. Travel time in the beam was less than two hours.

As a precaution I ordered the Marine squad to move to the most distant location within the structure, and to hang tight. They enabled their suits and used the BHD gloves to propel themselves towards the outer edge. Just before reaching it they fired a micro-burst leaving them in a room with a window out into space. They were soon greeted by a Waffen officer who was just getting up from his rest period, they were in his quarters.

The unlucky officer soon found himself slammed against a side wall by a gravity pulse, he slumped over dead. With nothing to do but wait for their fate the ten Marines took the time to look around the officer's quarters. From the size of the room and the looks of its furnishings they guessed he was of a high rank.

The furniture was much like the old chrome and glass furnishings that would go in and out of style on Earth about every 30 years or so. The walls were adorned with planet-side scenes from Eldred. One was of an extremely high cliff with what looked like an elevator going to the top. Rollins guessed since they were gliders it might be something similar to a halo jump for them. Another image had a series of loops with what looked like a Waffen gliding through them. His speculations as to what was happening were interesting.

As the counter ticked down to zero, the Marines braced for an explosion that did not come. The gravitational pull of the black hole was too strong and the fission reaction was sucked in before it could do any damage. Again I let out another sigh of defeat.

I next took command of the operation back into my own hands. I ordered the fleet to once again go to light speed, to travel in a large semi-circle around Eldred and to then attack the planet from the other side. If we could not disable the weapon we could at least make the Waffen pay for their support of it.

I reasoned that if we approached from the opposite side of their world the gravity beam would not be of use to them as a defense. If we could overpower whatever fleet they had perhaps we could talk them into submission and get them to shut the weapon down.

The flight would take 12 hours. I ordered Rollins and his Marines to once again go on a rampage and to just kill or destroy anyone and anything they could. There was still a chance that we might get lucky and find a critical weakness. Rollins shook his head in agreement and quickly ordered his men to their feet for a weapons and systems check. Seconds later they were in the nearest corridor blasting away with their weapons.

When the fleet re-emerged on the far side of Eldred a Waffen fleet was indeed waiting for them. But the Waffen technologies were far inferior to our own and the battle was quick and painless for our fleet. Within hours the Waffen High Council offered their surrender and their request to join the HE.

I told their council that their surrender would not be accepted until the gravity weapon was shut down. They responded that the weapon was not theirs. They believed it belonged to the Frekkin and the Waffen on-board had been pressed into service. They had no control over the weapon nor did they know how to shut it down.

Reports soon came in that the second gravity lens on the giant machine was on the move; it was spinning around towards the Waffen home world. I ordered the battleship Moscow to use everything it had in its power to attack the weapon from planet side. Within seconds it had come to a position between Eldred and the great machine and was using its gravity beam in an attempt to stop the second lens from aiming at its target.

We didn't know if it was the machine's shielding or the immense gravitational field surrounding it, but the Moscow's beam had little to no affect. She then launched all mini-fighters, all Drillers and fired all Protactinium guns at once. It was an impressive display of armaments, but the great machine was again unaffected.

I ordered the Moscow to again take cover behind the planet before the second beam came fully online. The captain complied and the fleet was soon in a safe position. I cursed the Frekkin and their ways. How easily they seemed to end the existence of a planet rather than to come out and fight for it. We watched helplessly as the Waffen High Council pleaded for our assistance... we had nothing to offer.

The giant gravity lens powered up and began its destruction. The area of impact was a circle ten kilometers wide. Five minutes after the terror had begun the great beam shut down. A message was then delivered to the Waffen High Council. Surrender to the Frekkin and attack the intruders or watch while their world was destroyed.

It was a no win situation for them. They could lose their entire fleet or lose their entire world. The choice was obvious. In an attempt to show mercy I ordered our fleet to disengage and to move to a distance approximately a light year away, but still on the opposite side of Eldred from the giant gravity weapon.

We needed time to assess the situation so that a strategy could be devised that would allow us at least a modest chance of putting a stop to the Frekkin technology. Arguments ensued and tempers flared as the planners threw out every idea possible, looking for that elusive solution. I sat in my chair listening as each idea was put forth and then subsequently shot down.

After 12 hours of non-stop debate the Marine battalion commander, Colonel Tom Fletcher, had his turn at it. Colonel Fletcher proposed that his entire battalion be committed to battle. The Moscow would head again towards Eldred and at 1/100 light year distance it would launch the full Marine battalion in their BGS suits.

They would drift for a day and then slingshot silently around Eldred and into the giant machine. With 150,000 boots on the ground it would only take days to overpower the target. The one thing that was needed was a distraction of the second gravity lens. We would have to sacrifice a destroyer in an attempt to lure the second lens away from pointing at Eldred. If it was to be turned on while they were drifting they would be sucked into the gravity beam with little defense.

I ordered the plan put in motion and within 20 minutes the destroyer Athens was being evacuated and set up for remote piloting. The empty destroyer soon departed on its mission. It would start at the somewhat safe three light year distance and then move towards the weapon while changing direction every few seconds. The intent was that with a little luck, we could keep the second lens busy for a while as it chased the destroyer, trying to end its existence.

Before the next hour began the BGS Marines were launched towards Eldred at an angle slightly off center. The drift would take two days. They would round the southern pole and then slingshot into our nemesis, hopefully unnoticed.

Just before the Marines achieved what would be line-of-sight, the destroyer began its maneuvers. I watched nervously as the needed two hour window of opportunity opened. We would soon find out if the enemy took the bait. The giant gravity lens mechanism again spun off towards the destroyer that was taunting it. The beam fired up and began to chase the bogey around in an attempt to annihilate it.

Another destroyer was readied and sent out in case the first one was taken out. Several empty destroyers would be a small sacrifice if our Marines were able to board the structure. Our attentions were again glued to the countdown timer as the Marines drifted closer. The vast distances of space war seemed to turn every maneuver into a waiting game.

Just before the first of the Marines arrived the beam caught up with the destroyer, sucking it in and ending its use. It would ride the beam until such time as it reached the event horizon of the black hole that powered it. The second destroyer was immediately brought online.

As the Marines drifted into the great structure they had to immediately active their glove BHDs in order to bring their forward motion to a stop. After the first handful of BHDs activated the Waffen aboard the structure locked onto them and began firing. The Marines were dropping into a hot zone.

The second destroyer soon met its fate and the second lens was spun around to once again engage Eldred. The beam began to dig a trench in the planet that was ten kilometers wide and half a kilometer deep. Massive amounts of debris from the ground at the planet's equator, as well as its atmosphere, were being sucked away while its innocent people attempted to flee.

As a secondary result of the beam weapon turning back towards the planet, the final 14,000 Marines, still in route, were swept into its pull. In a single battle we had sustained the largest number of casualties since I had taken command. It was a feeling that would haunt me for the remainder of my days.

The rest of the battalion was aboard the alien structure and soon had the upper hand. But not before another 8,000 brave human warriors gave up their lives. An hour after the assault began the beam steerage was once again altered enough that it was pulled away from Toleda's direction. An hour after that the second lens went silent.

When complete defeat was imminent the Waffen aboard the structure gave up their weapons and their posts. The beam would continue to rip into Toleda for another month, but from that moment on the planet would be in recovery. The Waffen of Eldred quickly capitulated and again petitioned to join the HE, their request was accepted.

When the gravity lenses finally went silent a cheer rose up from every command center of every craft under the command of the HE. Word was immediately forwarded to the Kurtz, but their celebration was short lived when they learned that the beam would continue its devastation for another month. There was nothing further that could be done.

Plans were immediately put in place to manufacture autonomous terraforming robots that would construct massive structures for the conversion of resources into atmosphere. The oxygen and sulfur in the air needed to be raised back to their prior levels and the dusts circling their globe needed to be filtered out. Estimates were from nine months to two years before the re-population of Toleda could begin.

With the hostilities over the second fleet pulled up to the massive structure and began to ferry the Waffen prisoners back down to their planet's surface. Many had been born into captivity on the structure and would have a first taste of what life on their planet... amongst their own people... was like.

I had Rial Boota assemble a science team to be sent to the structure for its study. It was still intact and capable of destruction. Our scientists and engineers would have the added responsibility of figuring out how to make use of the immense Frekkin technology.

Their main goal would be to find a way to stop another one from being used against us from another distant location. In the back of my mind I had a nervous hope that the Frekkin did not know of the location of Earth and that our world was safe from the destruction that had befallen Toleda.

With the current hostilities over the Council of Governance was called into action to plan Eldred's conversion from a Frekkin world to the HE. They would find the Human Empire a much more accommodating host to its member planets. As plans commenced I leaned back in my chair with a satisfied look on my face. A third world was joining the HE and we had again overcome the obstacles of war that had been placed in our path.

As Boota's science team decelerated through light speed I soon found my high level of satisfaction to be short lived. The Frekkin had triggered an auto-destruct mechanism for the massive black hole structure. Reports came in of alarms sounding for only seconds before the containment field that held the black hole in check was switched off. The effects were immediate.

The structure collapsed and the full pull of the black hole was unleashed. The second fleet had no time to power up and flee and was caught in the tremendous pull. All ships went to full throttle, but there was no escape. I watched a live video feed in horror as the captain of the Moscow barked orders and fought for the life of his ship and its crew.

The destroyers were the first to be overwhelmed and in less than a minute they disappeared into the event horizon. Next the cruisers were lost in a hard fought attempt to escape. They were holding their own until the tremendous pull began to strip away the atmosphere of Eldred. The new mass entering the black hole only worked to increase its powerful pull.

The Waffen all perished in less than a minute as a storm like no other swept across their planet's surface, vacuuming up everything that was not physically bound to the planet's mantle. My ship’s bridge was silent as my crew watched on with mouths open and heads turned down... stunned.

The Moscow’s commanders pushed hard, shutting down all systems including their shields in an attempt to divert all power to the BHDs. As they began to make forward progress the Mantle of Eldred began to show cracks. I stood and yelled over our comm links for them to get out of there, but my terrified pleas were of no help.

The more matter the unconstrained black hole consumed the more powerful it became. With much of the crust gone the hard rocky mantle soon split open. The orange molten core streamed out as if being poured from a jug in slow motion.

As the stream of molten core disappeared into the void the pull of the black hole became too much for the battleship's drive. I shuddered with a chill as I watched the video feeds from Boota's ship as the three battleships carrying nearly half a million humans perished in an instant. It took every ounce of my determination to not break down and sob. I could not afford to lose it, not in front of my crew and any others who were watching my reactions.

In less than three minutes the remainder of the planet was gone, devoured, pulled into the void of nothingness. Next were the two Transit Pulls that aligned with Toleda and the next planet in the Frekkin Empire. Minutes later, with no new matter to consume, the black hole began to collapse in on itself.

When the collapse finished there was a tremendous out-gassing of all that the black hole had consumed. A stream shot upwards and another stream downwards for hours as the matter within escaped. When the out-gassing stopped our science vessel reported that there was nothing left but empty space. The black hole had not survived long enough to pull in the other planets in the Eldred system... or its sun.

The twin streams of ejected matter would continue outward on a journey to oblivion. They would eventually speed into the voids of space between galaxies... likely to never again be a part of anything collected.

Four billion Waffen citizens had perished in seconds along with our second fleet. Nearly 508,000 fellow humans, 450,000 of them BGS Marines, were lost along with 36 valuable ships. The power contained in a black hole only a meter across was astonishing. If it was any indicator of the technology the Frekkin possessed we would certainly be in for a hard fought if not impossible war.

There were three Sodium hauler ships in transit to Waffen when the Transit Pulls were destroyed. They were each given orders to turn back as the Sodium would be needed to power the rebuilding of Toleda, as well any new worlds that were to be colonized.

With the Waffen gone there was no other record of who the next people in the Frekkin Empire were or exactly where their home-world was located. We had a rough estimate that had been calculated by using the positioning of the Transit Pulls before Eldred had perished. But the results were not precise and we were soon given six possibilities to explore.

A destroyer was immediately dispatched to the nearest target which was 374 light years distance from Toleda. With our drive system the journey would take over a month. Time was something that we had and something that we needed more of. Things were not going well with the Kurtz refugees.

The Kurtz population on Alvin had rioted several times due to the overcrowded conditions. Riots were soon quelled by their politicians when the alternatives were brought to their attention. They could cope with what they had and be patient or they could die as there was nowhere else to go.

On Earth things were not much better. Our atmosphere was unpleasant for the Kurtz with its lack of sulfur. That coupled with a near 20% increase in gravity and the four billion Kurtz being housed in makeshift quarters were suffering. Our foods also lacked some of the nutrients the Kurtz were accustomed to and the taking of supplements was highly frowned upon in their culture.

Tensions only heightened when the exploratory vessel returned information on the first suspected location of the next Frekkin world. We had one strike against us. The star in question had two gas giants in close orbit and no other planets to speak of. The team soon departed for the second star on the list... another 6 days and 80 light years distance.

The second star was also a bust with the third being 32 light years beyond. Three days later the team reported that we had found the next system. The star was 411 light years distance from Toleda and had three habitable worlds circling it. Each world with the same orbit, but spaced equidistant from one another around their sun.

Our destroyer parked at one quarter light year distance and began to observe. The three worlds in question were 60%, 70% and 90% in size as related to Earth. Initial long wave sensor reports showed many ships traveling between the three worlds. The system was heavily populated.

Back on Toleda the gravity beam's devastation had ended and with it our teams of terraformers had begun the task of cleaning up the Kurtz planet. Ship after ship of robot terraformers were unloaded on its surface, massive filtering ships began to fill its skies and two months into the process we got the bad news.

Numerous earthquakes had been reported by the teams on the ground of Toleda. After an extensive investigation the science teams came back with a heart-wrenching conclusion. Due to the effects of the gravity beam, Toleda's core had become unstable. The planet was uninhabitable.

News soon leaked of the discovery causing massive Kurtz riots on both Alvin and Earth. We had a population of nearly 8.5 billion citizens who had no planet to return home to. I had to order in troops for a lockdown. The infant HE was in chaos and struggling to survive.

The Council of Governance voted to speed the terraforming of the two planets orbiting Adebaran. After conferring with the Kurtz High Council the first of the worlds to be terraformed would be named Toledus and the second Mabia. But initial colonists would not be heading there for another year. I ordered a propaganda machine to be setup to feed the Kurtz people with continuous progress reports in an attempt to quell the uneasiness.